Page 83 of Fatal Thrill
Which made his gutscrawl.
“So here’s the deal.” He pointed at the first red circle, a part of him ready to get the weight off his chest about his father. Another wished he didn’t have to. “This is a cabin that belonged to Dalton Watt, and according to Beatrice, is still listed in his name, although the guy disappeared seven years ago. He’s a serial killer who murdered thirteen kids but framed my father for their deaths. My dad has paid the price, and so has the rest of myfamily.”
The folks around the table exchanged looks, none of them expecting that news. He saw their surprise, heard the uncomfortable shifting in their chairs. Not from the men who knew him, like Hunter, Duncan, Bouchard, or Bells, but their newest members who had never worked with Jon before. They had to be wondering if he was defending his father because of blood or if he was telling thetruth.
He couldn’t offer proof, only reassurances. “There have been no active cases that suggest Watt has continued his killing spree, but he may have just gotten smarter and the bodies have yet to be found, so yeah, I know what it lookslike.”
Hunter leaned back on his heels. “Evidence?”
“He used my father’s bow and left it at the cave where he disposed of the bodies. That was it, the only evidence. Watt and my dad were friends—Watt was with everyone around here back then. He got inside my Dad’s head, knew his routines. It wasn’t hard to set himup.”
Silence. Jon tensed. He’d lived with this hanging over his head for too many years, never being able to clear his father’sname.
Nyx whined and laid her head in his lap. He sank his fingers into her fur. “Look, my dad is no hero, and he’s pulled a lot of crappy shit in his time, but he isn’t a murderer, especially ofkids.”
Rage sat forward, setting his elbows on the table. “The police do any kind of investigation or did they just take the easyoption?”
“They wanted to believe it was my dad who killed those kids,” he said, digging a fingernail into the table. “Comes with the skin color and our ancestry, so they didn’t even look at anyone else. They still, to this day, believe it, since the killings stopped. No trail of bodies in seven years. But they’re wrong. Watt was—is—an extremely smartsociopath.”
“So Watt just went on living his life here?” Moe asked from the corner where he stood withParker.
“He went to ground around the time I started contracting with the FBI for search and rescue. I knew he was the killer all along, but I had—have—no evidence. Not that I can take to the police, anyway. He threatened me once, back when I found the cave and bones. Told me I ruined everything and he was going to pay me backsomeday.”
“And now he’s returned,” Huntersaid.
Jonnodded.
The big man crossed his arms over his chest. “Kinda passive-aggressive, don’t you think? He frames your dad, then bugs out when you put heat on him, and now he’s kidnapped your girlfriend’s brother in order to get back atyou?”
It was a stretch, but Jon had seen and heard weirder things. “Told you he’sclever.”
Jaya’s gaze was weighted. “You really think he’s involved with Finn’skidnapping?”
Under the table, he slid his hand over to hers. “I really hoped it was just a coincidence when Rory traced Finn’s phone to this spot, but Beatrice and I don’t believe in coincidences, and Rory ran Emit’s tracking program. Watt is a fourth cousin to LornaDoyle.”
“Nooo,” Charlotte breathed. “That witch. I knew better than to trust her, all that carrying on about Gypsies. Not only is she after the cross, she’s related to a serialkiller!”
Jon sighed. “It gets better. Mathew Fitzpatrick’s family members are descendants of the French consort who slept with that Catholic cardinal that the cross may have originated from.” It made his brain cramp trying to keep all the different threads straight. “They believe the cross, or at least the emeralds on it, belong to them, so according to the men Kieran interrogated, Lorna hired Fitzpatrick to findit.”
Parker snorted. “This is better than realityTV.”
“Could this be any more convoluted?” Jaya asked quietly. “What are the odds of your family and mine crossing paths likethis?”
“One in a million,” Jon said, “but it’s happening, so we have to wrap our minds around it and figure out a plan. Your dad decided to sell the cross, which he’d had all along, and contacted Fitzpatrick. Fitz was already looking for the cross because of the Doyles, and he jumped at the chance to get his hands onit.”
Jon brought everyone up to speed on what they knew regarding the Doyles and Fitzpatrick’s scheme, and how Moreau had gotten in the middle of it and messed things up. “According to what Kieran’s interrogation provided, the Doyles figured Sean was going to find a new buyer once Fitz turned up dead and Sean got away. They had no trouble tracking Finn, since he’d returned to the States and they were betting he was good leverage to flush out Sean. Lorna contacted Watt, who came out ofhiding.”
Everyone fell silent, each turning things over in theirhead.
Jon pointed at the second circle. “This is my dad’s place. It’s still in his name and has been abandoned since he went to prison. I’ve been paying the property taxes on it. Doesn’t look like much from ground level, but it was built in the late 80s, and there’s 2000 square feet of living area belowground.”
A soft whistle came from Bells. “He wasn’t messingaround.”
“The Russian threat was big at that time,” Parker said. She may have been a cognitive scientist, but she’d also been a spy. She probably knew as much about history and politics as she did about the humanbrain.
“Hey, I sawRed Dawn,” Colton told her. “Everyone was scared the Russians were going to take over the world or nuke it. Take yourpick.”
“They still think that around here.” Jon’s father had certainly feared both of those scenarios. “With these survivalists, it’s all the same—nukes, Big Brother, the plague, zombies. You name it, they’re prepared for it. Survival—of anything—is the name of the game, and they don’t trust our government any more than they trust foreignones.”
